Accelerated Artificial Landscape Visualisation

Abstract

We describe the design and implementation of four stages in an artificial landscape visualisation program. We begin by outlining a very simple but quick method of generating structurally realistic landscapes. We describe how the terrain can be stored in a multiresolution Binary Space Partitioning (MRBSP) tree such that each level holds a complete representation of the terrain at increasing reso- lution. A level of detail (LOD) technique is then illustrated which preserves the visually apparent size of triangles (after projection) so that the number rendered is reduced while preserving the aesthetic quality. Finally, we show how visibility calculations can be preprocessed and used to achieve output sensitivity by limiting the observer to ground based motion.